Case Study
Building a Cloud-First Future for Education
Client Profile
Technology Migration & Modernization
DevOpsEducation
Overview
An education provider needed to migrate its applications and databases from a legacy hosting environment to AWS. With student services on the line, downtime or data loss wasn’t an option. Clearscale executed a secure, well-orchestrated migration that used containerization, automation, and database replication to keep services online and ensure data integrity throughout the transition.
Meet Our Hero
This organization provides online learning and support services to students across the U.S. Reliability is crucial: if systems go down, students lose access to the resources they depend on.
The institution’s legacy infrastructure created risks around scalability, security, and resiliency. As the demands on its platform increased, leadership recognized it was time to modernize. The challenge was clear: migrate to AWS without disrupting access to mission-critical education services.
The Challenge
Challenge 01
Legacy hosting environment created risk for scalability and security
Challenge 02
Applications and databases had to be migrated without downtime
Challenge 03
Maintaining data integrity during migration was critical
Challenge 04
Needed secure connectivity to an Azure Data Lake
Challenge 05
Required rollback safeguards to minimize risk
The Goal
- Migrate applications and databases to AWS
- Achieve minimal downtime and preserve data integrity
- Containerize applications to improve scalability
- Establish secure connections to Azure Data Lake
- Automate infrastructure provisioning with Terraform
The Solution
Step 01 | Infrastructure & Automation
- Used Terraform to provision cloud infrastructure
- Built automated workflows to streamline deployment
Step 02 | Database Replication
- Migrated databases to Amazon RDS (MariaDB)
- Used AWS Secrets Manager and SSH tunnels for secure replication
Step 03 | Data Transfer
- Created VPCs with public and private subnets across multiple Availability Zones
- Enabled secure outbound connectivity via NAT Gateways
- Used AWS Transit Gateway for centralized traffic flow
- Established VPN connectivity to support the migration process
Step 04 | Application Modernization
- Containerized applications on Amazon ECS (Fargate)
- Improved scalability and simplified operations
Step 05 | Secure Connectivity
- Configured a Network Load Balancer (NLB) with HAProxy for secure links to Azure Data Lake
Step 06 | Testing & Cutover
- Conducted rigorous testing
- Performed DNS cutover using Amazon Route 53
- Designed rollback strategies for added protection
The Impact
Completed migration to AWS with minimal disruption
Established a secure, scalable, and automated cloud environment
Improved application performance and reduced operational overhead
Created a secure, reliable pipeline into Azure for advanced analytics
Positioned the organization for future innovation and growth
Turn Cloud Chaos Into Clear Results On AWS
Clearscale helps education providers break free from cloud chaos and experience clear results on AWS. If your systems are holding you back from serving students effectively, let’s talk.